CEFEUS Launches Draft Report on Brexit's Impact on SMEs

On Tuesday the 25th of April, at Cripps LLP in Tunbridge Wells, CCCU’s Centre for European Studies (CEFEUS) was proud to host, along with Cripps, and HSBC, the ‘soft launch’ of its draft report entitled: “Kent and Medway: Making a Success of Brexit: the Role of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises”.

The event was pitched at a variety of local and regional business and commerce leaders, and was well attended. Gavin Tyler of Cripps set the scene by providing an overview of the results of Cripps’s Spring 2017 survey. This is the second such survey that Cripps has undertaken, the goal being to poll regional businesses to get their response to the anticipated impact of Brexit.  

After further introductions by the Chair, Professor Peter Vujacovic of Canterbury Christ Church University, Dr Amelia Hadfield, Director of CEFEUS then briefly examined the insights and data in the draft report. Identifying both UK and EU-based shifts in the political climate that have served to change the negotiating perimeters since CEFEUS’ first report (December 2016), Dr Hadfield then addressed four issues most likely to impact on SMEs in Kent and Medway:

• The terms of trade between the EU and UK; 
• Future of business and trade with non-EU countries, and the concept of ‘global Britain’ in commerce terms;
• Changes to rules, standards, regulations as a result of the anticipated Great Repeal Bill; 
• Changes to funding arrangements in key sectors.

Paul Winter, who is the Chair of CEFEUS’s Sectoral Group on SMEs then rounded off the evening with a series of clear sighted observations stemming from conversations regarding with many other businesses and colleagues, as well as  changes undertaken within his own company, Wire Belt Plc. Paul suggested that “the current business support network is neither well understood nor seen as particularly effective” and that many businesses risk leaving it too late to become fully informed about, and prepared for Brexit. The Q&A that followed also indicated that SMEs in general still require more information, and better support, to fully understand the challenges and consequences of Brexit.

Responding to this identified requirement, CEFEUS will continue to convene sectoral meetings gathering together SMEs from across Kent and Medway, providing networking opportunities, outreach and collating insights and data, all of which is necessary to complete the final report, envisaged for the end of June.

For more information about the event read more here.

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